The stock market indices had a volatile day today, but hung in there and managed to close with gains on the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500, but the Dow finally broke its 8 consecutive day winning streak, dropping more than 10 points today.

The day started out with a drop from the get-go with futures lower, and a gap down to test support. At that point they snapped back very sharply in a rally that took the Nasdaq 100 from 2342 to 2367, down 25 points. The S&P 500 jumped from 1312 to nearly 1322, and then rolled over midday to retest. There was about a 50% retracement. They bounced, backed and filled, made new highs for the day on the S&P 500, but not on the NDX, and then backed off sharply just before the close only to snap back in the last 5 minutes.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 10.60 at 12,229.29. The S&P 500 was up 0.99 at 1321.87. The Nasdaq 100 up 3.40 at 2364.35.

Technicals were nearly flat. Advance-declines were about 16 to 14 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 13 to 12 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 5 to 4 negative on New York, with total volume right at 1 billion shares. Nasdaq traded over 2.4 billion shares and had a 13 to 11 negative volume plurality.

TheTechTrader.com board had several large multiple-point gainers. Leading the way was Whole Foods Market, Inc. (WFMI), up 6.30 to 60.05, but by far the big gainer today was IPG Photonics Corporation (IPGP), up 12.87 to 47.62, up 37% on great earnings. SuccessFactors, Inc. (SFSF) advanced 4.92 to 35.02, Hanger Orthopedic Group Inc. (HGR) 4.38 to 27.14, and Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) another 4.12 to 256.63.

Among other gainers of note, Service Corp. International (SCI) was up 1.69 to 10.78, Entercom Communications Corp. (ETM) 1.78 to 12.42, Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) 92 cents to 4.48 on 120 million shares traded today, and Superconductor Technologies Inc. (SCON) up 67 cents to 3.31.

In addition, IDT Corporation (IDT) rose 1.03 to 27.18, reaching as high as 28.59 at one point. Lululemon Athletica Inc. (LULU) gained 1.27 to 82.77, and Stratasys Inc. (SSYS) 1.73 to 42.81.

One the downside, Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost 3.62 to 354.54 and Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) dropped 3.23 to 51.15.

Those were the only point-plus losers on our board today.

Stepping back and reviewing the 5-minute chart patterns, the indices backed off, rallied back sharply, came back down midday, and then backed and filled the rest of the day making new S&P 500 highs, but failing to confirm on the NDX, and then rolling back into the close mixed on the day with mixed technicals as well.

It was a day in which the bears had a chance to break them, but couldn’t, and once again the bulls came back at the close.

Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com.